Good Morning, Gratuitous Hayden Michael Brown

Last night when I saw Tom Holland's sexy leggy cover for the new issue of Esquire UK I'd figured he'd be getting this morning's "Good Morning" post but you know what? From a glance at the rest of the photos that dropped on the magazine's Insta this morning it seems like the only hot-shot is the cover and then everything inside the magazine is milquetoast and I'm tired of Tom baiting us. So no "Good Morning" post for you, Tom! Instead I'm going with a dude with one acting credit to his name and it was on that Ryan Murphy show starring Kim LastNameIDoNotType. Cuz that's how I roll.

His name is Hayden Michael Brown and that show was called All's Fair and I never watched a single second of it -- even though (save Kim) it had a cast of extremely talented and charismatic actors including Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and Glenn fuckin' Close, among many others, it got some of the most horrendous reviews I've seen in some time. But I doubt that was hottie Hayden here's fault -- he was only in two episodes and...

...  I can't imagine he wasn't hired to mainly showcase how hot he is. And boy looks hot! And yes of course he does since he's mainly a model, which explains how I managed to gather up dozens upon dozens of photos of him even though his only acting credit is two episodes of a deeply despised Ryan Murphy show. Maybe at this point you're wondering how the hell I stumbled upon Hayden all of a sudden this week without having seen his Very Important Two Episode Arc on All's Fair then? A fair question! Twas those dastardly chaps at Behind the Blinds magazine...

... who were behind it again, featuring this young fellow in one of their latest photoshoots. They always got my number over there at Behind the Blonds excuse me Blinds. (That was a real genuine typoe but clearly I'm keeping it.)  Anyway -- take notes, Tom Holland! This is how you get ahead in this business. Spider-who? Ody-what? Exactly. Hayden who and what and I'll tell him "where" when he gets here. Hit the jump for dozens more of Hollywood's new everything...

Two Secret Lovers, Wagner & Me

Although Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent was one of my favorite movies out of last year it's not the September 2026 Criterion release that got announced today that I am the most thrilled about, for one simple reason -- we already knew that Criterion was releasing this film on disc. That news had been spoiled months ago. But I don't think it takes a brain surgeon to figure out why I'm nevertheless beginning this post with that picture of The Secret Agent's leading man Wagner Moura. I think we all got it! I am a simple man. Anyway this will release be on 4K, it comes out on September 22nd, and this movie is probably pretty much an undistputed masterpiece -- if you haven't seen it yet do, and then just buy the damned disc. Or blind-buy it. I really doubt you'll be unhappy you did. It's one of those rich feasts of movie that we hardly ever get anymore. Moving on to more feasts...

... the September release that has not just knocked my socks off but shot them right across the room is the box-set of three Leos Carax movies! Fuck yeah and yes please! If we were just talking about his first film, Boy Meets Girl, which I only just saw for the first time a couple of years ago and fell deeply madly and completely in love with upon first sight, that'd be enough here. But it also includes his two Binoche!-starring follow-ups, Mauvais Sang and The Lovers on the Bridge -- amongst Juli's best roles, which is really saying something when you're talking about the world's greatest living actress says me. These two are magnificent showcases for her and for what magic Carax is possible of making. He's one of my number one movie-makers, and this set will give you a clue why. (I wish Criterion would go ahead and put Holy Motors in the Collection already but I'm sure it is inevitable.) 

And then we've got another two-fer of 2025 flicks coming in hot -- there's Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague, which as far as Richard Linklater movies go I kinda of liked? Out of the two movies he made last year it's a goddamned masterpiece at least, compared to the unbearably shrill Blue Moon which I couldn't fucking stand. I thought all of the actors were terrific as the French New Wave Gods they were tasked with playing in Nouvelle Vague at least, and Linklater's adoration of characters who won't shut the fuck up for five seconds at least made sense when dealing with a person like Jean-Luc Godard. The other 2026 title is Sergei Loznitsa's "Kafka-esque thriller" Two Prosecutors, which I really wanted to see (I will watch anything described as a "Kafka-esque thriller") but somehow slipped through the cracks. I will consider this release my chance to fill up said crack, then. Any fans? Is it indeed a "Kafka-esque thriller" or is this just Criterion suckering in Lit-major dopes like me who always fall for that descripotion? 

I'm gonna plow through the last three titles coming out in September a little quickly now because 1) I don't have a lot to say about any of these and 2) I should be working on my ongoing Tribeca reviews but I am allowing myself a brief break so the site doesn't sit here silent as the grave all day. Here goes. They are upgrading Sidney Lumet's classic 12 Angry Men to 4K; they are dropping the massive nine-hour-long Holocaust document Shoah (which means that I will definitely finally watch Shoah, one of the long overdue experiences I've admittedly been terrified of experiencing all these many many years); and they are releasing Satyajit Ray's beloved 1970 film Days and Nights in the Forest, which I have not yet seen either. Ray also represents a massive hole in my film knowledge -- I believe I've only ever seen Pather Panchali? So many damn holes and cracks to fill, damn damn damn. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

What did I tell you guys last week when that photoshoot of Charles Melton dropped for GQ? I told you, and I quote, that "I would not be lying if I told you that 2026 Me wakes up every single morning hoping for a new Charles Melton photoshoot to appear." Well I woke up this morning hoping for it again, and voila -- it happened again! Alright alright I had a wee bit of warning on this one because W Magazine teased this photoshoot last night with a little Instagram video (one which I have natch made gifs from) but nevertheless. Beef awards season has finally gotten me to care about awards season y'all. What a miracle. Anyway happy Monday and hit the jump for the rest...

Oscar Isaac Has Murdered Me

Hello Mister Police! Solve my murder! This photo of Oscar Isaac on the set of Julian Schnabel's In the Hand of Dante has finally and officially done me in. Goodbye, cruel world. At least til Monday.

Beam Me Up, Joshie

How nice to watch in real time a truly talented and handsome young man like Josh O'Connor go from bum-fucking in the mud to starring in an outer space alien epic by the one and only Steven Spielberg. It's been a true pleasure. I know some people knew who he was before God's Own Country but there's when I hopped on the Joshie train, and it's been nothing but choo-choo-choosing him ever since. I'm not a betting man but I do see the appeal of choo-choo-choosing a winner dammit. Anyway I have gone and reviewed said "space alien epic" Disclosure Day today, so click on over to Pajiba to read that -- it's a very weird movie, not really a "space alien epic" at all. But I found it thoughtful and surprisingly moving, especially in the ways it's having a conversation not just with Spielberg's stamp on cinema but with our current lived reality. I mean it's got lots of action scenes too, and nobody does 'em like Spielberg, but it's really... well I'll let you discover for yourself. Just give it a chance, says me. It's a surprise in a lot of ways. 

Morgan Specter Seven (Plus) Times

May our preeminent Rail Daddy himself Mr. Morgan Spector never stop being so generous to us -- for Cultured magazine today he's gone and gifted his world of fans and admirers, but mostly me personally, yet another half-naked photoshoot,. And we, I, thank him, from the depths of our...

... well you know, depths. And yes I will take this moment to plug his new movie Caity which just premiered at Tribeca -- I doubt I'm going to review it but he gives a lovely little performance in it, you should seek it out when the time comes. And with that said, let's get back to the main event, these pictures. Hit the jump for the rest... 

Pics of the Day

This is so, so weird, you guys. I was just literally just thinking this very morning that if Paul Mescal is gonna be off shooting Sam Mendes' four Beatles bio-pics for all of the foreseeable furuture the least he could do was go for one of his patented shirtless short-shorted jogs to satiate those of us who need a fix... when suddenly, wham, as if the internet read my brain (can... it do that now?), photos from the now-shooting films arrived that showcase Paul and Barry Keoghan filming in Spain on a boat in short shorts the both of them. WTF?!? I really am magic, you guys. You don't want to ever lose me! I make short-shorts happen! Hit the jump for several more (and hopefully Harris Dickinson and Joseph Quinn will be joining the short-shorts club shortly)...

Had a Man Smoke Ya Pole

I don't think there's a right or a wrong answer on whether William Friedkin's 1980 film Cruising was ultimately a "good" or "bad" thing for the gay community -- I think the people on the scene at the time were right to protest it and I think the younger people like myself who are extremely grateful to have this window into the pre-AIDS leather world of NYC are right as well. It's complicated! And thankfully Jeffrey Schwartz's new documentary Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, which just premiered at Tribeca, treats it as such -- click here to read my review. At an extremely tight 84 minutes my only complaint is the movie could've been longer, but I think it does a great job introducing the dozens of perspectives that surround the film, from then and now. Good stuff, perfect for Pride Month! (Although no I do not yet have any idea when it will be out in theaters so don't ask me!)

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I have absolutely nothing against Russell Tovey's face -- indeed two of my favorite parts of Russell Tovey, his ears, are attached to it -- but it just so happens that the hottest photos of Russell in this new photoshoot (via) have him obscuring his face so I'm starting with those. Just know it's Russell under there! You'll see his face below, but for you above the fold people, is my point. Anyway this sexiness is for a good cause -- the Derek Jarman emblazoned t-shirt that Russell is modeling...

... is a limited-edition thing via an LGBTQ+ bookstore in the U.K. where the proceeds go to a bunch of excellent queer person charities, so click on over and buy one! You can also buy them in person at a bunch of places in the U.K. and the first link will direct you to those places. And now that you've done your due Pride diligence hit the jump for more sexy Tovey (including yes thankfully his ears)...

Happy Pride Month

Although it's only three posts deep to date -- and one of them are of the above same gif of Colman Domingo planting a big one on Josh O'Connor while doing press for Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day, out this week (and which, wink wink, a certain somebody is dropping a review of shortly) -- I have got a "Happy Pride Month" thread started on Bluesky and I will hopefully continue to share personal highlights of faggotry from now til the end of the month. Stay tuned! Bookmark it! Please feel free to reply to it with your own! It's our month now, wha ha ha ha!!! We own the world!

A Grand Buffet of Weirdness

I know a lot of people found Jack Dylan Grazer's character (and performance of said character) in Luca Guadagnino's We Are Who We Are series off-putting -- as I said at the time I personally found the both of those things very funny and very honest, like the anti-idealized Elio from Call Me By Your Name. Just a really properly annoying teen boy that I felt very seen by. (Weirdly Charles Melton brought up that series in that GQ magazine profile I linked to this very morning -- perhaps we can finally go back and reevaluate the show for the brilliance it was now?) Anyway Grazer plays a similar but slightly tamped-down version of that same role in the terrific Tribeca movie Ponderosa which I just reviewed out of the festival -- click here to read that. Grazer and the always fantastic and underappreciated Bill Camp make for quite the pair. I liked this movie a lot. One of the best of the fest, says me! We'll surely keep an eye out for its eventual release and will try to keep you informed.

I Want Your Trailer

As promised alongside the film's poster yesterday the trailer for Gregg Araki's new film -- his first in over a fucking decade! -- I Want Your Sex has arrived! I've done all this table-setting about ten thousand times over the years this thing's been barrelling towards us but since it's trailer-time I'll do it again: the movie stars Olivia Wilde as an avante-garde L.A. artist...

... and Cooper Hoffman as her assistant who she starts getting it on with. The film also stars Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Daveed Diggs, Margaret Cho, Johnny Knoxville, and Charlie XCX, among many, many, and many more. Now watch:

I Want Your Sex is out on July 31st. You will be seeing it. No that is not a question or a request. I am getting into the whole dominatrix thing now and I am telling you. Pretend my heel is on your throat. That's a good boy.

Who Watches Rivals?

I have been well aware of the British series Rivals since it began airing in 2024 because I keep myself abreast of every move that Aidan Turner makes thank you very much. And yet I've only done one post on the show (here, and worth the click) and I've never watched a single episode? It seems as if every time a new episode airs I add more half-naked Aidan to the over-stuffed "Aidan Tuner" folder on my computer, telling myself I'll get to it eventually... and yet the above photo of Aidan and his well-proportioned co-star Alex Hassell rocking the world's tiniest shorts appears to be the thing that finally broke me. I gotta start watching this damn show already! Y'all tell me -- how is it? Opinions, thoughts, seventeen stanza poems devoted to Aidan's hirsute torso -- whatever ya got give it to me in the comments please and thanks.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Melton

I would not be lying if I told you that 2026 Me wakes up every single morning hoping for a new Charles Melton photoshoot to appear, so when I opened up my phone today and saw he is on the cover of British UK reenacting some Abercrombie & Fitch Quartlrly shenanigans... needless to say I was pleased. And I remain so! 

As if by bonus this photoshoot was conducted by photographer-turned movie-director Luke Gilford, whose queer rodeo movie National Anthem with Charlie Plummer was one of my favorites in 2023 (here is my review) -- can we get another movie please, Luke? And if it was an illicit Aught--era Frat Boy Romance starring Charles Melton I wouldn't be angry. Let's all hit the jump and for now just pretend it's a movie...

Who Wore It Best?

online polls

My first thought was that it'd probably be mean to Paul W. Downs, the Broad City and Hacks actor/writer, to do this poll since... well that Marky Mark Calvin Klein photoshoot is as iconic shit as iconic shit comes. And it's the kind of iconic gay shit that literally turned every single man who saw it gay, even if just for a sexy confusing split second. But Paul's the one who put himself in this position by doing this shoot for Paper Magazine. And he clearly loves showing off (and working out) his body, as displayed on both Hacks and Broad City via scripts for episodes of television that he himself was responsible for. And perhaps some of us look at Mark Wahlberg now and think nothing other than "racist weirdo" which is certainly more than fair. So I leave it to you people to decide, as always. Have at it!